ECCI has joined forces with the Project X corporate accelerator – which aims to radically transform 10 industries in 10 years – to deliver a more sustainable food system.
We’re working on FEED-X, a strand of the WWF-founded and EIT Climate-KIC-funded Project X initiative. It focusses on catalysing change in the food system and will source, test, finance and scale sustainable animal feed ingredients.
Our contribution focusses on a significant part of the animal feed problem – fishmeal. Mincing up fish to provide protein in animal feed is hugely damaging. We’re identifying and assessing innovators with sustainable alternatives.
Later in the year, the project will select the nine most promising innovators through the FEED-X Challenge. It will give them the opportunity to build their global profile, scale their operations and accelerate adoption across the entire industry.
This will include introducing them to financing opportunities, direct market testing and the opportunity to work with leading aquaculture feed company Skretting.
PwC, the University of Cambridge, Wageningen Livestock Research, Utrecht University and Harvard CBE are just some of the other partners working with ECCI and Climate-KIC on FEED-X.
Catherine Laurent-Polz, Portfolio Manager, Sustainable Land Use at EIT Climate-KIC, said: “The aim of FEED-X is to be a convener, using the ‘pull’ of advanced market commitment to support whole industry value chains to align and accelerate the adoption of sustainable innovations at scale, providing innovators with access to market.”
ECCI's Innovation Manager Katherine Maxwell said:
"At ECCI we believe creating a smart and thriving future is about putting solutions into practice.
"We're hugely excited about using our networks and expertise to identify game-changing innovators in this crucial industry."
ECCI-supported start-up MiAlgae, which makes animal feed out of microalgae grown on wastewater – has taken huge steps through the support it received on ECCI’s Climate-KIC Accelerator.
It’s now in the final stages of product development.
Find out more about the team involved with this project.
Deputy Director